Hong Kong labour chief vows to stay after fire report criticism
Labour chief Sun Duk says he will follow the chief executive's order to stay in his post and implement policies after a critical report on a fatal fire. He apologised for the incident and detailed enforcement of a new smoking ban at construction sites.
Labour and Welfare Bureau chief Sun Duk has said he will follow the chief executive's order to remain in his post and fully implement the government's result-oriented policies, after a critical independent committee report on a fire at Hung Fook Court was made public on 29 October.
Speaking to reporters in the Legislative Council, Sun was asked if he bore political responsibility for the deadly blaze and whether he had considered resigning. He again apologised for the incident and stressed that as a politically appointed official, he must support the chief executive's governance and be accountable to the chief executive. He said he valued team spirit and had a sense of the bigger picture. The chief executive had clearly stated her requirements, and as an accountable official, he would follow her instructions, stay at his post and work hard to better implement the government's result-oriented policies.
Regarding the report's findings about the Labour Department's handling of complaints and the poor performance of some individual staff, Sun said the chief executive had already raised the issue of administrative accountability and that it would be left to the Public Service Commission to deal with.
As for the report's recommendations, including a full smoking ban at construction sites under revised legislation, Sun said the Labour Department had already implemented it. He noted that since the amendment, information provided by the public, including photos and video footage, had helped the department enforce the law. In the three months since the new rules took effect, the Labour Department had issued 87 fixed-penalty notices, of which 27 – about one third – were based on information provided by the public. For contractors, four cases involving five tickets were now undergoing prosecution proceedings.
Sun added that since the new rules took effect, the Labour Department had conducted more than 6,900 inspections, of which about 430 were based on complaints or information provided. While this figure accounted for only a small proportion of the total number of inspections, the rate of successful prosecutions was very high. He called on the public to continue providing assistance to help enforce the smoking ban at construction sites.
